Captivity Resources

D. Reiss
Active Learning Online
Resources about Slavery

ship's hold-Middle Passage

Illustration of Ship's Hold, Middle Passage, from Africans in America, Public Broadcasting System

  • Africans in America, a documentary from Public Broadcasting System, includes a wide range of text and graphic resources, including historical documents and drawings
  • Resources on slavery by Professor Brycchan Carey of Kingston University, United Kingdom, include poems about slavery, essays on abolition and emancipation, and links to other sites

Olaudah Equiano

Equiano book

Equiano's Interesting Narrative from Africans in America, Public Broadcasting System

  • Olaudah Equiano: Africans in America, Public Broadcasting System, includes biographical information, the text of the narrative, and scholarship as well as an image of the iron muzzle described by Equiano:

      I had seen a black woman slave as I came through the house, who was cooking the dinner, and the poor creature was cruelly loaded with various kinds of iron machines; she had one particularly on her head, which locked her mouth so fast that she could scarcely speak, and could not eat or drink. I [was] much astonished and shocked at this contrivance, which I afterwards learned was called the iron muzzle."

  • Olaudah Equiano: Perspectives in American Literature includes an extensive bibliography of scholarship
  • Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African by Brycchan Carey of Kingston University
  • "Unraveling the Narrative": article in The Chronicle of Higher Education (9 Sept. 2005, 52.3: A11) reports on scholarship that questions Equiano's account of his birthplace and Middle Passage crossing
  • Equiano Foundation: Website from 1997 has not been updated but does include a few portraits of Equiano

Harriet Jacobs

portrait Harriet Jacobs

Portrait of Harriet Jacobs from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Website by Julie R. Adams

  • Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: text, cover, introductory article, and images of Jacobs plus images of slavery; Website by Julie R. Adams for the American Crossroads Project (select Site Index)
  • Harriet Jacobs: Africans in America, Public Broadcasting System, includes biographical information, the text of the narrative, related documents, scholarship, and an image of her runaway notice
  • Harriet Jacobs: Perspectives in American Literature includes an extensive bibliography of scholarship
Ad for escaped slave Harriet

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D. Reiss
modified and copyright ©2 October 2005 by D. Reiss